Role of Russian Minorities in Kazakhstan in a Context of Growing Russian Revisionism

Abstract

The dissolution of the Soviet Union left 25 million of ethnic Russians outside of Russia, in countries of the former Soviet Union. In several countries, ethnic Russians played a role of a time bomb, as they were used by the Russian Federation as a tool for pressing unfriendly governments. In the Ukrainian case, ethnic Russian population in Crimea played a big role in its annexation by the Russian Federation in 2014. The role of Russians in Ukraine and Russian passport holders in Georgia must be explained in a context of growing Russian revisionism. These countries were punished for shift of their foreign policy orienteers from Russia to the West. Today, breakaway territories in Georgia and Ukraine play a role of an anchor of Russia, which allows the latter to affect the domestic affairs in the future. The Georgian and Ukrainian cases became a good lesson for Kazakhstan, which has been cautious of its large number of ethnic Russians. The findings during a research demonstrate that the risk of repeating the Ukrainian crisis in Kazakhstan is not as big as it is expected to be. Nevertheless, the Kazakh authorities are already taking measure to reduce this possibility.